Mumbai: Grasim Industries Ltd, the flagship company of the Aditya Birla Group, reported a marginal increase in consolidated net profit at Rs1,063 crore for the fourth quarter from Rs1,055.26 crore a year ago.

Revenue was up 6% at Rs11,409.41 crore in the quarter ended 31 March against Rs10,763.70 crore a year ago.

Three analysts polled by Bloomberg expected the firm’s consolidated net profit to come in at Rs745.50 crore and revenue at Rs7,733.80 crore.

Grasim has four lines of business—viscose staple fibre (VSF), cement, chemicals and textiles.

It posted Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization)—a measure of operating profitability—of Rs2,142 crore, up 4% on the back of a stellar performance by the VSF business.

“The company’s strong sales volume supported by firm international prices helped drive an excellent performance in the VSF business. Even though the captive pulp plant at Harihar remained shut from February 2017 due to water shortage, the production of VSF remained unaffected as the business ensured running of operations with external pulp supplies,” Grasim said in a statement to stock exchanges.

The VSF business, it added, will continue to focus on expanding the market in India by partnering with the textile value chain, achieving better customer connect through the Brand Liva and enriching the product mix through a larger share of speciality fibres.

“The company is in the process of de-bottlenecking its plants to meet the growing demand,” it said.

The chemicals business recorded a volume de-growth of 6% year-on-year.

“Lower chlorine offtake in the industry has restricted caustic soda production. As a result business recorded a volume de-growth of 6%. This, coupled with a sharp increase in power costs has created pressure on profitability,” the company said.

Its brownfield expansion at Vilayat in Gujarat is on track. Civil works have begun and the commissioning is expected by the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2018. “Alongside, the de-bottlenecking under implementation at other plants will increase the company’s chemical capacity from 840,000 tonnes per annum to 1,048,000 tonnes per annum,” the statement said.

Cement arm UltraTech Ltd’s consolidated revenue came in at Rs7,020 crore, up 3% from Rs6,819 crore in the fourth quarter last year. Ebitda, however, dropped to Rs1,577 crore, against Rs1,605 crore last year.

“Despite sharp rise in energy cost, the manufacturing cost increase was limited to a large extent, given the enhanced share of power from waste heat recovery and reduced power consumption. Similarly the logistic cost was controlled by increased use of sea route and higher supply from new grinding units,” the statement said.

The company has recommended a dividend of Rs5.50 per share against Rs4.50 per share in the previous year.

On Friday, the Grasim scrip closed at Rs1,121.30, down 0.67% on BSE, while the benchmark Sensex closed at 30,464.92 points, up 0.1%.